Hysteria
by KaceBox
Summary: The Metaversal epic begins with the Ghostbusters of the ATC universe getting strange readings that cause concern, readings that also interrupt Erin and Holtzmann on the roof. Meanwhile in the Star Wars universe, Rey appears to be the sole survivor of a galaxy wide wipeout of all life. Harbinger is transferred to a new satellite in the wake of an ongoing Crisis in the Arrow Multiver


_Manhattan, New York._

From time to time, Erin Gilbert likes to take in the scenery of New York from the rooftop. Floors below inside Ghostbusters headquarters, Patty is monitoring a reading while Abby and Jillian check the containment unit. At least that is what Jillian Holtzmann was doing until a moment ago.

She opens the door to the rooftop where Erin is leaning against the wall, her arms on the ledge and crossed. She turns to see Jillian entering with her silver stereo radio/tape player.

Jillian "Hey."

Erin "Hey, Holtzmann. Abby send you up here?"

Jillian "Just figured you might want some company. Maybe some jams."

On the roof, there is a small table that Jillian has welded there sometime prior. It was meant for any rooftop experiments, but most of the time it serves as a base for the radio she carries around. Such is its use at this moment as she places it there. Erin turns her back to the city, leaning against the wall as she focuses on Jillian.

Erin "Oh, what did you bring this time?"

Jillian "I made a mixtape. Just now getting to the last song of side one. Still trying to figure out how to dance to it."

Erin grins, walking away from the short wall behind her and towards Jillian.

Erin "So you have dancing in mind, do you?"

Jillian "Yeah, need to loosen up a bit. All this research and tracking can really tense up the muscles."

Erin "Then I would love to join you."

Jillian pauses and smiles at Erin. This is everything she has wanted to hear for the last three years.

Jillian "Sweet."

She presses Play on the tape player and after a second of silence, the music begins playing and Erin recognizes it immediately. Jillian has a tendency to pick up on nuances and preferences. Some time ago, Erin had discussed listening to Def Leppard as a child and now "Hysteria" is playing. By the smile on Erin's face, Jillian did good this time.

Erin "Ah. I love this song. I played this whole album nonstop for the longest time as a girl."

As Erin talks, Jillian begins awkwardly dancing in front of her, much to Erin's amusement.

Jillian "Cool, teach me some of your dance moves from this one."

Erin places her hands on Jillian's shoulders.

Erin "Um, actually with this song it helps to slow down a little."

Jillian slows down almost to the point of freezing up.

Jillian "Okay."

Erin positions herself and Jillian for dancing, having her right hand intertwined with Jillian's left and her right against Erin's left hip. Erin's left hand is on Jillian's right shoulder as the vocals kick in on the song.

"_Out of touch  
Out of reach, yeah  
You can try  
to get closer to me"_

Jillian is leading, but she follows Erin on how and where.

Erin "Not bad."

Jillian wants to respond, but being this close to her crush has caused more staring into her eyes than talking. As the song continues, Erin lets Jillian know when to spin her and Jillian on cue does so. Their dancing is a sort of waltz between them. Finally, Jillian is able to speak again.

Jillian "You're really good at this."

Erin "I'm just learning this on the go with you."

Jillian "Really?"

Erin "I watch some clips online every once in a while, try to take notes."

Both smile and their eyes lock on some more. By the end of the second verse, Erin is spun again and this time without warning. She laughs from the spontaneity and as her spin completes, she finds herself in a different dancing position with her partner. Her hands are now on Jillian's shoulders as Jillian's hands are on Erin's hips. They have become closer over the past few years and they have been through quite a bit together with adventures and everyday life. Their dancing slows down as "Hysteria" by Def Leppard continues on. Jillian's voice is almost a whisper as their noses almost touch.

Jillian "...I'm not too close am I?"

Erin's eyes cannot escape Jillian's, her voice almost whispering as well.

Erin "You're fine."

"_Hysteria, when you're near."_

Reaching the song's bridge, their tranquility is broken with the door swinging open suddenly and Abby emerging.

Abby "Guys!"

She sees the two of them dancing and though she knows this has been building for some time, it cannot wait.

Abby "Uh, I hate to break up the wedding, but we've got a situation."

Both look at Abby, still holding close to one another on the rooftop. Just as the guitar solo is about to hit, Jillian presses Stop.

Erin "We'll be right down."

Abby "Okay. You might wanna hurry, this one has printouts."

Abby closes the door and heads back downstairs. The music has stopped and there is now a sense of awkwardness between Erin and Jillian who slowly back away from one another, remembering that they are colleagues.

Erin "Um..."

Jillian "Yeah… hooo. Uh..."

Jillian looks at Erin, her confidence stripped from her by an ill-timed Abby interruption.

Jillian "You uh… can we… um..."

Erin feels the same sense of panic, nodding.

Erin "Finish this another time?"

Jillian "Yeah, that. That."

Erin "I'd love to. But um… let's see what's going on downstairs."

Both nod and begin to head back inside.

_A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…_

Tatooine.

She sits hovered above the desert ground, her eyes closed. She can feel the screams of millions in terror as the sky above her is glowing red. The terror does not derive from the Sith, the Empire, the First Order, or any new contingent reliant on the dark side of the force. With the defeat of the First Order, Rey has become a manifestation of the force itself. This is something far more sinister and powerful. It does not appear to be of this galaxy or even this universe. It is an ominous wave of energy however and the young woman who has since rechristened herself as Rey Skywalker knows that the only solution is to let this malevolence pass through, taking with it all life itself.

Except for Rey. Now in darkness as the wave of antimatter has engulfed all surrounding her, those spirits now lie within her. Her eyes open. She does her best to contain the emotions of countless lives, now spirits within her crying out in agony. She also senses someone important missing.

_Los Angeles._

Bette Porter is running for Mayor of Los Angeles. Being a mayoral candidate also means giving speeches at fundraisers such as the one she is at here. The attendees sit and watch from their tables inside the ballroom of the hotel they have reserved. A few have their phones out, mostly for the sake of recording Bette as she speaks from the podium.

Bette "So no matter what my opponent tells you. No matter how hard they want to come at me about my personal life. No matter how hard they try to drag me down as a human being, the one thing to remember is why they're doing this. They do this, because we are the threat they fear the most. We're the threat, because we threaten their monotony. We threaten their status quo. For the privileged who have only known power, they see us, climbing through the filth they continuously try to bury us in, the mud and the blood and chaos, they see us getting through all of that… and they realize that we're not gonna stop fighting!"

The audience applauds.

Bette "Do you think they would care that I'm biracial or a lesbian or that I was raised in Philadelphia if they didn't see me, personally as a threat to their power structure? I think you know the answer to that. Meanwhile, real threats are endangering our city and they continue to turn away from it."

Bette can sense that just as suddenly, she is beginning to lose her audience as many start looking down at their phones, many checking them. She is unsure as to why this is happening, but she presses on.

Bette "What's going to happen when a genuine threat, the kind that threatens not just livelihoods, but our lives?"

She can now hears muttering in the audience, some beginning to gasp. Bette looks over to a member of her election team, Dani Nunez who is now looking up from her phone and the look in Dani's eyes alerts Bette to there being some kind of danger. Bette motions with her head for Dani to approach her and she does so with a quickened pace.

Dani "We need to get you someplace safe."

Bette has now turned away from the podium.

Bette "What's going on?"

Dani shows Bette an image of downtown Los Angeles from her phone. The skyline is the same, but now there is a thick red sky with flashes of lightning in the distance. Dani then escorts her out of the ballroom while another member of the team makes an announcement at the podium about the situation unfolding outside.

Bette "Dani, how long ago did this happen?"

Dani "It was just in the last few minutes, Miss Porter."

They step inside the elevator that is to take Bette and Dani to their floor.

Bette "Is it natural or man made?"

Dani "I don't know. I don't think anybody does. There are reports of flooding up the coast as well as flooding to the east so we're taking higher ground."

Bette "Great. I talk about threats and danger and now we've got a red fucking sky outside."

Dani "Yes. Not to be pushy, but I think this would be a good time to remind the voters of your stance on climate change."

Bette "I wanna see those skies for myself."

The elevator reaches its location and the door opens. Bette and Dani exit, now walking towards Bette's suite.

Dani "So do I."

Bette "As for climate change, we absolutely have the lead on our opponent already. Anything more at this point will come off as being 'too preachy.'"

Bette opens the door to her suite and enters, Dani walking in behind her. Upon entering, they can both see outside the window ahead. Both are almost in awe of the sight.

Bette "Jesus."

Dani looks at Bette and both have similar looks of concern before looking back to the red sky outside.

Dani "This has to be a sign."

Bette "I don't know about all that. I do know that whatever that is, it's not good."

_Manhattan, New York._

The Ghostbusters are all still in uniform as they gather around a monitoring device.

Patty "You know that four percent of the whole universe y'all like to talk about? I got a feelin' we're about to hear from the other ninety-six."

Erin "What kind of readings are you getting?"

Abby "Erin, come look at this."

Abby makes her way over to a stack of paper with graphs on them.

Abby "This is a printout from the last hour. We've got some kind of activity and it's more than just spirits of the afterlife."

Erin "What do you mean?"

Abby "Look at these spikes. No amount of regular matter in this universe is gonna give you a reading like that."

Jillian "It's still peaking by the way."

Erin "You're right. That would take a large amount of..."

Erin and Abby pause and look at one another.

Abby and Erin "Antimatter."

Jillian "So do we have ghosts or antimatter or antimatter ghosts coming at us?"

Abby "Good question, Holtz. But I don't think we're gonna like the answer when we get it."

Jillian "Who wants to call the Mayor?"

_Somewhere Outside of Space and Time._

It is as if she were coughed out by the thin air. Landing on the floor and rolling involuntarily, Harbinger realizes that something has gone wrong. Lying face first on the cold floor, she rises up to her knees, hands planted on the floor, and lifts her head. Now picking her hands up from the floor, but still on her knees, she sees that she is now inside of an apparent satellite. Her attention is then received by the voice of a man that her body was made to betray moments earlier.

Monitor [voice] "Harbinger. You're finally here."

Harbinger gets to her feet, still looking around.

Harbinger "Monitor! Monitor, where are you?"

Monitor [voice] "At this point, I think it's safe to say that you've already killed me. Remember, we had foreseen this happening before the events of this Crisis played out, but now that you're here it means that the Anti-Monitor did as we predicted. He now has an imperfect duplicate of you while you're here where you need to be to ride out the rest of this Crisis."

Harbinger "Wait. This isn't your base."

Monitor [voice] "Correct. My base lies within the construct of a largely destroyed multiverse. This is the Harbinger Satellite. I am the Monitor and I serve as your mainframe."

Harbinger "A program, similar to Gideon for the Legends."

Monitor [voice] "Correct."

Harbinger looks around her and sees monitors mounted on boards and against the walls.

Monitor [voice] "Our multiverse is just a part of a greater metaverse, a collection of universes and multiverses that are now being threatened with the very extinction that our multiverse is. This satellite exists outside of that for better observation, much like Vanishing Point. On each of these monitors there are databases and links to assemble the last line of defense against the Anti-Monitor's machinations."

Harbinger "He's using our multiverse as a test run?"

Monitor [voice] "I suspect not and if not then that means that someone else is."

Harbinger "Which means we could have a much bigger problem on our hands."

Monitor [voice] "Correct."

Harbinger walks up to one of the control boards and its central monitor screen.

_An empty void where once a galaxy far, far away stood._

For a moment, Rey looks around in the darkness and can sense she is being watched. She is uncertain by whom. She wants to go back to searching within herself for the answers as to what has wiped her home out of existence, but instead is alerted by a strange noise unfamiliar to her. Floating in this void, she readies her lightsaber as a large blue image slowly appears before her. It is in rhythm to the strange noise it puts out. As the noise dies down, the image takes on a solid form and Rey is unsure how to react to it. What appears to a be a door opens and now Rey has to decide whether to stay in the void in search of answers that do not appear forthcoming or enter this strange box that has appeared before her.

_Harbinger Satellite._

Harbinger once answered to a more human name, Lyla Michaels. Lately she has embraced the Harbinger moniker more. Looking on at the events on the screen, she is about to ask the Monitor about the young woman she sees entering what looks like an old British police call box when she hears the voice of the Monitor mainframe.

Monitor [voice] "This is Rey Skywalker. She is among the last of her kind for her universe. Outside of our local multiverse, hers is among the earliest casualties."

Harbinger "How did she survive it?"

Monitor [voice] "She contains a power far beyond the comprehension of most other universes. She has now been retrieved by a being from another universe soon to be in danger of the same fate."

Harbinger "Skywalker. Why does that name sound familiar?"

Monitor [voice] "Her universe became the source of fictional constructs across many universes including your own. A word of warning, your universe may also be viewed as a fictional construct to others."

Harbinger "Well that's nice to know."

Monitor [voice] "All of this information is now at your fingertips. Each potential recruit you locate will become known to you much faster. Your knowledge of them, their lives, is located in this database. It is up to you to find the best recruits and ready them for battle."

As the mainframe talks, images of people throughout this metaverse are shown. There is a blond woman in what appears to be the garb of a traditional 1950s American television housewife, complete with dress and makeup. The image shifts to another woman, also blond whose attire is different as she fights off a man twice her size. Next is an image of a dynamic trio fighting off colorful villains. One of them resembles a purple clad Batwoman. There are three women walking out of a building with the sign "Townsend Agency" on the brick wall. There is an orange Dodge Charger with a black 01 on the side leaping in slow motion. A black Pontiac Trans Am speeding through the desert. Actors in sci-fi inspired uniforms taking a bow in front of an enthusiastic audience.

Monitor [voice] "This is barely a sample of the database. Use it wisely and remember, I am at your command."

Harbinger nods, knowing the responsibility this entails.

"_Can't stop this feeling  
Can't stop this fire"_


End file.
